#140: The Most Fight-Inducing DIYs Out There: a house

Home improvement can be stressful, and we are no strangers to that tension leading to some fairly memorable arguments. So today we are looking at some data about what do-it-yourself projects cause the most issues between couples to see if we agree (and we share a recent fight we had in the name of data). We also reveal some takeaways from a recent house staging project that we took on together, including the big secret to getting your home ready to sell and how you may have to unlearn everything you know about decorating. Plus, John falls for another lighting product, Sherry ups her face game, and we see if people truly do hate textured walls after all.

You can also find this episode on your go-to podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What is New

That room above is the basement living space from the recent staging project that we worked on together. As you can see in the before photo below, it was acting as sort of a “gaming room” for the family. Note that they were in the midst of packing and moving, so things were a bit more scattered than their usual day-to-day (reminder: moving is messy).

Sherry will go into more detail when we write up a full post about this project, but you can see how we minimized the amount of stuff in the room and on the walls – because the goal is not to sell the decor, it is to sell the house. They also repainted the walls throughout the house with Sherry’s paint recommendation (White Dove by Benjamin Moore with Extra White trim by Sherwin Williams) before we swept through on the final staging day.
On our final day we moved some furniture around (for example, flanking the TV with two chairs to disguise some of the TV components) and then lightly styled the space – without putting anything on the walls at all except for the star over the mantel.

You can see more examples of what Sherry does during her staging projects in this post from last year that is packed with specific pointers, before & afters, and even some examples of the difference between a “decorated” room and a “staged” one.

Game: Hands-on Fights

If you want to read the full Porch.com survey about DIYing that we referenced, you can find it at the link above, and below is a snapshot of the Hands-on argument data.

We also mentioned a tool that can detect an electrical current that can keep you safe! We have one of these non-contact voltage detectors and our electrician once left us an outlet tester as well. They are both good safeguards that your power is correctly shut off before beginning any electrical project (remember the labels in your panel box can be wrong!).
And if you are thinking of tackling some of those “fight-inducing” projects above, here is are links to the times we tackled them:
- Installing A Ceiling Fan
- Installing A Dishwasher
- Hanging Drywall By Yourself
- Installing Hardwood Flooring

Update: Textured Walls

If you want to hear our original discussion about textured walls (or see some examples of them in the show notes) – check out Episode #135.
And here is some data (you know I ENJOY DATA) that we gathered about textured WALLS, which appear to be more common in the western/midwestern portions of the United States (shown in the purple shades below):

Whereas textured CEILINGS are a bit more evenly spread out:

We frequently get asked for a walkthrough for removing textured walls or ceilings, but since we have not had any of them in any of our homes, we have not done one – at least not yet. Sorry about that, but I’d check youtube and I bet a million will come up.
And here is some of the orange peel texture “patch” spray that some people mentioned using (with varying degrees of success). Some people said it was especially straightforward, others were not satisfied with how it matched their existing texture.

We are Digging

Above is one of the SnapPower nightlights that we installed in the duplex hallway. And by “installed” I mean I unscrewed the old cover and screwed this new one on, simply like a normal outlet cover. THAT IS IT. Cannot say sufficient good things about these.

Lastly, here is that Thayer’s Facial Toner with 4,000+ five star reviews that Sherry has brought in to her skin & face care routine. It is under $9 for a big 12 oz bottle, and she puts some on a cotton ball and wipes it all over her face every morning along with her other magic kitchen/face things. (Do not ask me how that works – but she detailed it here).

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. Sign up at Grove.co/YHL and spend your first $20 to receive a FREE gift: a trio of Mrs. Meyers cleaners, a 60-day VIP Membership AND a surprise bonus gift on top of all that.